1956 Summer Olympics

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Games of the XVI. Olympics
1956 Summer Olympics logo
Venue: Melbourne ( Australia )
Opening ceremony: November 22, 1956
Closing ceremony: December 8, 1956
Opened by: Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Olympic oath : John Landy (athlete)
Disciplines: 20 (16 sports)
Competitions: 145
Countries: 72
Athletes: 3,314, of which 376 are women
← Stockholm 1956 (Equestrian Games)
Rome 1960 →
Medal table
space country G S. B. Ges.
1 Soviet Union 1955Soviet Union Soviet Union 37 29 32 98
2 United States 48United States United States 32 25th 17th 74
3 AustraliaAustralia Australia 13 8th 14th 35
4th Hungary 1956Hungary Hungary 9 10 7th 26th
5 ItalyItaly Italy 8th 8th 9 25th
6th SwedenSweden Sweden 8th 5 6th 19th
7th Germany team all German 1956All-German team Germany 6th 13 7th 26th
8th United KingdomUnited Kingdom Great Britain 6th 6th 11 23
9 Romania 1952Romania Romania 5 3 5 13
10 Japan 1870Japan Japan 4th 10 5 19th
... ... ... ... ... ...
34 AustriaAustria Austria - - 2 2
35 SwitzerlandSwitzerland Switzerland - - 1 1
Complete medal table

The 1956 Summer Olympics (officially called the XVI Olympiad Games ) took place from November 22nd to December 8th, 1956 in the Australian city ​​of Melbourne . These were the first Summer Olympics in the southern hemisphere. Due to the strict quarantine regulations for horses, the equestrian games were held five months earlier from June 10th to 17th in Stockholm (Sweden).

Award

Melbourne was chosen as the venue for the 43rd session of the IOC on April 28, 1949 in Rome . In the last ballot, the city prevailed with one vote ahead of Buenos Aires . Other candidate cities were Mexico City and six US cities with Los Angeles , Detroit , Chicago , Minneapolis , Philadelphia and San Francisco .

Results of the ballots:

place country Round 1 round 2 Round 3 Round 4
Melbourne AustraliaAustralia Australia 14th 18th 19th 21st
Buenos Aires ArgentinaArgentina Argentina 9 12 13 20th
los Angeles United States 48United States United States 5 4th 5 -
Detroit United States 48United States United States 2 4th 4th -
Mexico city Mexico 1934Mexico Mexico 9 3 - -
Chicago United States 48United States United States 1 - - -
Minneapolis United States 48United States United States 1 - - -
Philadelphia United States 48United States United States 1 - - -
Montreal Canada 1921Canada Canada 0 - - -
San Francisco United States 48United States United States 0 - - -

Ceremonies

Opening ceremony

The games were officially opened by Philip, Duke of Edinburgh . The athlete's oath was spoken by the Australian athlete John Landy . The last torchbearer was the Australian athlete Ron Clarke .

Closing ceremony

Before 1956, the athletes arrived at the closing ceremony, as at the opening, separately by nationality. In Melbourne, after a suggestion by 17-year-old Melbourne's John Wing as a symbol of global sporting solidarity, everyone came mixed into the stadium for the closing ceremony . After Wing had seen the opening ceremony, he turned to the organizers with a letter, in which he suggested that the athletes at the closing ceremony should no longer march according to nationality, but should be able to move freely. The athletes presented themselves as members of a large Olympic family in which there were no nations and borders. The proposal and the casual graduation ceremony that followed met with great approval, so that this has been an Olympic tradition ever since.

Outstanding athletes

  • The most successful athletes were gymnasts Ágnes Keleti from Hungary with four gold medals and two silver medals and Larissa Latynina from the Soviet Union with four gold medals, one silver medal and one bronze medal.
  • The best male athlete was the Soviet gymnast Viktor Chukarin with three gold medals, one silver medal and one bronze medal.
  • Outstanding performances by athletes from the host country came from sprinter Betty Cuthbert with gold medals in the 100 meters, 200 meters and in the 4 x 100 meter relay, as well as swimmer Dawn Fraser with two gold medals and one silver medal.
  • The German Olympic champion Hans Günter Winkler and his marvelous mare Halla became an Olympic legend during the equestrian games in Stockholm.

Worth mentioning

Postage stamp from the German Federal Post Office (1956) : Olympic year 1956
  • For the first time in history, the Olympic Games were held outside of Europe and the United States in the southern hemisphere .
  • The flight of the Austrian rowers and 47 athletes from Germany and 27 from Yugoslavia was accompanied by an incident, so that they all landed in Melbourne 15 hours late. Starting from Hamburg , there was a stopover in Anchorage , then the destination was Honolulu , but an engine cut out so that the machine had to return to Anchorage. The repair took almost a day.
  • The flag bearer for the German team at the opening ceremony was the athlete Karl-Friedrich Haas .
  • The opening day (Thursday, November 22nd) has been declared a public holiday. All schools, factories, offices, banks and shops were closed, restaurants were only open until 6:00 p.m. There have already been elimination games in basketball, but they were not yet part of the Olympic tournament. Austria provided 29 athletes. The Austrian radio broadcast daily direct broadcasts, which were, however, taken over by the German radio. At 3:00 p.m. local time, the nations marched in for the opening. Austria was the fourth nation, the standard bearer was the cyclist Franz Wimmer . The team's dress color (brown / beige graduated), however, was classified as not very lively, for the women it was more of a "station mission". The Hungarian team, which performed without Soviet emblems, received great applause. The US team was dressed in white and dark blue, the women wore red high-heeled shoes and red handbags. The ladies of the Soviet Union were dressed all in white. Host Australia invaded the last team. The opening was made by Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. At the same time as Melbourne, Olympic champion Toni Sailer lit the Olympic flame in front of the State Theater in Innsbruck .
  • The Olympic village was located in the Melbourne suburb of Heidelberg and offered space for 6,000 athletes.
  • The first gold medal for Germany in Melbourne was won by canoeists Meinrad Miltenberger and Michel Scheuer in a two-person kayak. This was also the first gold medal for a German team since the 1936 games in Berlin; In 1948 Germany was excluded; In 1952, neither West Germany nor Saarland could win a gold medal, and the GDR did not take part.
  • Carlo Pedersoli, later better known as Bud Spencer , took part in the Olympic Games for the second time since 1952. He reached eleventh place over 100 meters freestyle.
  • The games were the first to be televised live.
  • At the games there was a scandal when the flag of the People's Republic of China was accidentally hoisted for the national Chinese team . The national Chinese athletes then stormed the flagpole to the cheers of the spectators and tore down the red flag.
  • The Melbourne Games were also referred to as "The Friendly Games".
  • The Hungarian athletes received more applause than the Australian host team when they marched into the stadium during the opening ceremony. The blood game in Melbourne , the clash between the Hungarian and Soviet teams on the penultimate matchday of the Olympic water polo tournament, became famous and infamous . With a score of 4: 0 for the Hungarian water polo players, the game, which was played with great aggressiveness on both sides, was canceled one minute before the end of regular time. After the demolition, the police had to intervene because the audience - consisting largely of exiled Hungarians - attacked the Soviet water polo players aggressively. In the shared changing room, a chain of police officers separated the two teams.
After the games, the Hungarian Olympic champions were invited to a guest tour to the USA, with the idea of ​​emigrating. Six of the athletes accepted the offer, but with the exception of Ervin Zádor, sooner or later returned to their homeland. In 2006 the story of the Hungarian water polo team was filmed under the title Children of Glory . However, already in Melbourne some of the Hungarian team left without announcing the travel destination or a great many decided to stay in Australia.

Attendees

Map of the participating nations. Countries marked in green were already participants before Melbourne. Countries that had their Olympic premiere are marked in blue. Countries marked in dark green boycotted the Melbourne Games.
Number of athletes

A total of 3348 athletes from 72 nations took part in the games: in Stockholm 164 athletes from 29 nations, in Melbourne only 67 nations with 3,184 athletes (2,813 men, 371 women). Ethiopia , Fiji , Kenya , Liberia , Malaya and Northern Borneo - today both countries are parts of Malaysia - and Uganda made their Olympic debut.

List of participants

Participant in the 1956 Olympic Equestrian Games in Stockholm

Europe (1,595 athletes from 24 nations)
America (641 athletes from 17 nations)
Asia (509 athletes from 17 nations)
Oceania (350 athletes from 3 nations)
Africa (104 athletes from 6 nations)
  • Ethiopia 1941Ethiopia Ethiopia * (12)
  • British East AfricaBritish East Africa Kenya * (25)
(Number of athletes) * Participation in summer games for the first time

The then divided Germany took part with an all-German team , as it did later in the Olympic Games in 1960 and 1964 . It united athletes from the Federal Republic of Germany , the GDR and Saarland, which was still autonomous in 1956 . This first all-German team competed under the black-red-gold flag (without coat of arms), which was the official flag of both the Federal Republic and the GDR until September 1959. The National Olympic Committees of the two German states received the Alberto Bonacossa trophy from the IOC in 1958 for the formation of the all-German team at the Winter and Summer Games in 1956 .

Boycotts

Three states ( Spain , the Netherlands , Switzerland ) boycotted the games because of the invasion of the Warsaw Pact states in Hungary ( Hungarian popular uprising ) just a few weeks before the games. Although the Swiss National Olympic Committee lifted the boycott decision on November 11th after the IOC intervened and nominated Swiss Olympic candidates protested, the non-participation became definitive just a few days later. The reason was that those responsible had not been able to find a means of transport to Melbourne. There was also an incident in the Olympic village because of the communist symbols on the Hungarian national flag. Three other countries ( Egypt , Lebanon , Iraq ) boycotted the games because of the Suez crisis . Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Egypt took part in the early equestrian games in June. The People's Republic of China announced two weeks before the Games that it would not participate because the Republic of Taiwan had been admitted.

Competition program

145 competitions (114 for men, 26 for women and 5 open competitions) in 16 sports / 20 disciplines were held in Melbourne. Because of Australia's quarantine regulations for horses, equestrian sports took place in Stockholm (1 sport, 3 disciplines, 6 competitions (2 for men and four open competitions)). There were 2 competitions, but the same number of sports / disciplines as in Helsinki in 1952 . The changes are detailed below:

  • In athletics , men's 10,000 m walking has been replaced by 20 km walking.
  • In swimming , the program for men has been expanded by 200 m butterfly - for women by 100 m butterfly.
  • In sailing , the open class Sharpie replaced the open 6 m class.

Olympic sports / disciplines

Number of competitions in brackets

Time schedule

Time schedule
discipline Thursday
22.		 Fri.
23.		 Sat.
24.		 Sun.
25.		 Mon.
26.		 Tuesday,
27.		 Wed.
28.		 Thursday
29.		 Fr.
30.		 Sat.
1.		 So.
2.		 Mon.
3.		 Tuesday
4th		 Wed.
5.		 Thursday
6.		 Fri.
7.		 Sat
8.		 Decision-
disk-
applications		 spectator
November December
Olympic rings without rims.svg Opening ceremony 87,733
Basketball pictogram.svg basketball 1 1 60,556
Boxing pictogram.svg Boxing 10 10 35,628
Fencing pictogram.svg fencing 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7th 20,767
Football pictogram.svg Soccer 1 1 194,270
Weightlifting pictogram.svg Weightlifting 2 2 3 7th 9,374
Field hockey pictogram.svg hockey 1 1 40,560
Canoeing (flatwater) pictogram.svg canoe 4th 5 9 2,569
Athletics pictogram.svg athletics 3 5 5 4th 5 2 3 6th 33 661.231
Modern pentathlon pictogram.svg Modern pentathlon 2 2 3,908
Cycling Cycling (track) pictogram.svg train 1 3 4th 29,572
Cycling (road) pictogram.svg Street 2 2
Equestrian pictogram.svg Equestrian sport see Olympic Equestrian Games in Stockholm
Wrestling Wrestling Freestyle pictogram.svg Freestyle 8th 8th 29,718
Wrestling pictogram.svg Greco-Roman 8th 8th 29,718
Rowing pictogram.svg rowing 7th 7th 25,974
Shooting pictogram.svg shoot 1 1 2 3 7th 1,407
Swimming Swimming pictogram.svg swim 2 2 1 1 2 3 2 13 90,835
Water polo pictogram.svg Water polo 1 1
Diving pictogram.svg Diving 1 1 1 1 4th
Sailing pictogram.svg sailing 5 5
Gymnastics (artistic) pictogram.svg do gymnastics 15th 15th 47,390
Olympic rings without rims.svg Closing ceremony 86,716
Demonstration competitions
Australian football
baseball
decisions 6th 7th 9 13 8th 3 11 34 2 5 11 16 21st 1 147
Thursday
22.		 Fri.
23.		 Sat.
24.		 Sun.
25.		 Mon.
26.		 Tuesday,
27.		 Wed.
28.		 Thursday
29.		 Fr.
30.		 Sat.
1.		 So.
2.		 Mon.
3.		 Tuesday
4th		 Wed.
5.		 Thursday
6.		 Fri.
7.		 Sat
8.
November December

Color legend

  • Opening ceremony
  • Competition day (no decisions)
  • Competition day (x decisions)
  • Closing ceremony

    • Demonstration sports

    As with the 1952 Summer Olympics , the organizing committee was able to include two demonstration competitions in the program: a national sport and a foreign sport. The OK decided on

    The Australian football game took place on Friday, December 7th, between two Australian teams in the main stadium. This sport, like the US variant , which was a demonstration sport in 1932 , has not yet found acceptance into the Olympic program .

    The baseball game took place six days earlier, on Saturday, December 1st, also in the main stadium. An American selection clearly defeated the Australian selection 11: 3. Baseball was still a demonstration sport on several occasions and was part of the Olympic program from 1992 to 2008 .

    Web links

    Commons : 1956 Summer Olympics  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

    Individual evidence

    1. ^ A b page of the IOC on the 1956 Summer Olympics (English). Retrieved April 4, 2013 .
    2. ↑ Number of participants unclear, cf. Talk page
    3. ↑ An engine cut out over Alaska . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna November 17, 1956, p. 8 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
    4. ↑ Melbourne as of today the center of the sports world . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna November 22, 1956, p. 8 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
    5. ↑ The Summer Olympics have started . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna November 23, 1956, p. 10 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
    6. ↑ The village that shimmers in all colors . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna November 16, 1956, p. 10 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
    7. ↑ The Olympic Games are over; Subtitle: At least 45 Hungarians stayed in Australia . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna December 11, 1956, p. 8 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
    8. ↑ Official IOC Report 1956 Riding (PDF; 52.7 MB) p. 23
    9. ^ Official IOC Report 1956 (PDF; 34.1 MB) Analysis of Competitors p. 260 ff.
    10. ↑ CRW flags
    11. ↑ The Olympic Games in danger? In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna November 7, 1956, p. 8 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
    12. ↑ Holland cancels too . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna November 8, 1956, p. 8 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
    13. ↑ Switzerland cancels too . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna November 9, 1956, p. 8 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
    14. ↑ The Swiss team to Melbourne . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna November 13, 1956, p. 8 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
    15. ↑ Switzerland not to Melbourne after all . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna November 15, 1956, p. 8 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
    16. ^ Incident in the Olympic village . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna November 13, 1956, p. 8 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
    17. ↑ Official IOC Report 1956 (PDF; 34.1 MB) Demonstrations p. 713 ff.